Couple Found Dead In Murder-Suicide

Metro detectives are trying to figure out why a South Nashville man killed his girlfriend, shoved her remains into an odor-proof trash can, and then shot himself days afterward.

In what police call a “bizarre, elaborate murder-suicide” plot, the couple was found dead a week after officers initially went to the home to check on the woman.

Authorities found the bodies of Jesse Meece, 45, and who they presume to be Beth Jacobs Straub, 45, on Monday afternoon after officers stopped at Meece’s home on Ilawood Drive after his mother called police and said he hadn’t shown up for work.

They had been to the home a week before to check on Straub’s whereabouts, but Meece told them she had left after they had gotten into an argument.

After police found Meece’s body on the couch, they looked around the house and found a makeshift wall in the basement. Behind the wall they found a 96-gallon trash can with a PVC pipe attached directly to the sewage system. They also found a receipt for the sealant and 100 pounds of livestock stall deodorizer.

SMH.

When officials with the medical examiner’s office opened the trash can Tuesday morning, they found the remains of a body inside under a plexiglass window and a foam sealant. Authorities presume the victim is Straub.

Police believe Meece killed Straub sometime between Oct. 27 and Oct. 29, and then modified the garbage can to prevent the odor of the decomposing body from being discovered.

Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said that when authorities initially went to the home to check on Straub, officers likely did not look for signs of foul play given Meece’s explanation that she had left. “When you’re doing a welfare check or something like that, you’re not going to be breaking down walls,” Aaron said.

Neighbors said the couple had been living together at the Ilawood Drive rental home for at least a year and a half.

Neither showed any unusual signs of distress during the days before the killings occurred, said Jacob Vaughn, whose family had lived next door to the property for nine years.

“She told us she was leaving on vacation, so it was no surprise her truck hadn’t moved,” Vaughn said.

Her employer, Triumph Aerostructures, told police she had taken a day and a half of vacation time the previous week but then didn’t return to work the following Monday or Tuesday.Meece’s employer, Service Source, told authorities he had not been to work since Oct. 30.

Police records show no prior arrests for the couple or domestic violence calls to their home since they moved in.

Aaron said authorities will conduct an autopsy on Straub to determine how she died and continue to interview neighbors and co-workers to try to establish the circumstances that led to the two deaths.

He sure did go through great lengths to make sure no one smelled that body. Crazy.